The Good, the Bad, and the Media In the year 610 AD, the Prophet Muhammad was first visited by the Angel Gabriel in which he revealed a message for the Prophet to spread to the people. Over the course of 20 years the angel visited Muhammad relaying numerous messages from Allah Muhammad travelled throughout the region of modern day Saudi Arabia, spreading the messages relayed to him from Allah to the people. Thus, the creation of the Islamic religion roots is formed in modern times. like today, the Islamic religion is the second largest observed religion, with about 1.6 billion followers. In fact, the United States is home to about 26 million people follow the Islamie faith, making it the third most popular religion viewed to date. Yet many people, especially in the United States, fear Islamic Muslims because people link Muslims to terrorism most notably since the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001 Citizens in the US, are living in fear and hatred of Muslims, otherwise known as islamophobia, but what do people know about them and their Islam religion? Do people understand that terrorism and the Islam religion are two distinguishable entities? The main cause of islamophobia is that Americans (and people worldwide) have little to no understanding about the what exactly the Muslim religion entails, with education and enlightenment, Americans may perhaps recognize the contrasts between what the Islam religion is and how Islamic Muslims differ from terrorists, and that the media plays a direct role in spreading islamophobia and hatred towards Muslims in the United States. The Islamic religion is built upon the foundation of five pillars that all Muslim followers are capable of reciting and following on an everyday basis. The first pillar, Shahada, is the basic statement every religious Muslim person can recite wholeheartedly. The phrase is a Muslims testimony of faith, which means, "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger 3 2 (BBC.com, page 1).". The second pillar, Salat, is the performance of religiously praying five times a day. The third pillar, Zakat, is the payment of a percentage of earnings achieved once a year to charities for those who are less fortunate by. The fourth pillar, Sawm, is the practice of fasting during the month of Ramadan in which Muslims may not eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. The fifth pillar, Hajj, is the journey to Mecca, like Muhammad had done when Gabriel gave him His (Allah's) message. As long as it is physically and financially possible, the hajj is performed in the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar. The Muslim people use these five pillar to maneuver through everyday life, proving that they put their religion first instead of proclaiming their religion and doing nothing with it. Unlike Islamic Muslims, however, Islamic terrorism is a completely different idea from those proposed by Muhammad so long ago. By definition, Islamic terrorist are groups of professed Muslims who use the Qu'ran, Sharia, and Islamic laws to justify their actions. Although terrorism does not have to be religious based, Islamic terrorism, especially in today's society, is the main culprit for most of the terrorist-claimed attacks worldwide. People, especially in the U.S., group together Islam Muslims and Islam terrorists only assuming that the basis for both is violence. Because of this, people presume that all Muslims are violent when, in fact, most of them are quite peaceful. “It appears that none of the anti-Muslim critics are aware that Muslim societies are among the least violent in the world," says Andrew Mack in his article on Slate.com exploiting the truth about Islam. Mr. Mack emphasizes the fact that in Muslims populations, the homicide rates within those populations were inherently lower than those seen in more non-Muslim parts of the world. "In 2011," Mack states," a major study by political scientist M. Steven Fisher of the University of California, Berkeley, presented cross- national statistical data showing that between 1994 and 2007, annual homicide rates in the ge of earnings achieved ormance of religiously Sawm, is the practic when Gabriel nk from sunrise to Muslim world averaged just 2.4 per 100,000 of the population. That was approximately a third of the rate for the non-Muslim world and less than the average rate in Europe. It is also the hajj is approximately half the homicide rate in the United States (Mack 3). Along with Macks' views pillar on Islam Omar Alnatour, a Muslim American an writer at the Huffington Post, formed a list on why Muslims are not violent. In his article, Mr. Alnatour used statistical data stating that, “A study carried out by the University of North Carolina showed that less than 0.0002% of Americans killed since 9/11 were killed by Muslims...the average American is more likely to be crushed to death by their couch or television than they are to be killed by a Muslim." With the statistical data presented from different University studies, one would suspect that most people would not have a fear of Muslims. But, there is a powerful entity that almost every person in the world, especially the U.S., uses to stay up-to-date on news worldwide: The Media. When a terrorist attack occurred in any part of the world, the media is quick to identify the attackers' religion. Media is even faster to call those responsible Muslim when a terrorist group, like Al-Qaida and ISIS, claim responsibility for the attacks. "The media have tried to represent Muslims as 'terrorists' posing a threat to the western security,' says Professor Imam Mirza Mesic in his essay on the effects of Western media on Muslims. “The representation of Muslims in the media relates to the lack of acceptance of differences (MEŠIĆ 3)," and, “The focus on terrorism unifies TV coverage of Muslim news and the dominant image is ‘Islamic Terrorism (Mesic 3).""' Along with Dr. Mesic's viewpoints professor Belinda F. Espiritu of the University of the Philippines Cebu. Dr. Espiritu's exposition explores the negative representation Muslims receive from the Media on a global perspective, in which she dwells into the ideas that other writers have proposed to illustrate the idea that global media is mis-labelling Muslims as "murderous fanatics" and should be seen as human beings and given the same respect and 5 dignity of others. The predominantly negative media portrayal of Islam and Muslims needs to be balanced by widespread knowledge of peace-loving Muslims who pursue the path towards union of love and will with God (Espiritu 1). When the media uses the term Muslim when speaking of terrorist attacks, they are playing a direct role in the islamophobic feelings Americans gain about Muslim religious people. Instead, the Media should focus more on a person as a whole and less on their professed religion. What Global media and people worldwide need to comprehend is that Islamic terrorists and Islamic Muslims are two distinct sets of people with different viewpoints, and prospects. Islamic Muslims are very peaceful and not all Islamic people are seeking to hurt others. They should not be discriminated against because it is "assumed" that all Muslim people intend to cause harm. "...we need to educate non-Muslims about Islam and Muslims about other faiths to establish mutual understanding and tolerance (MEŠIĆ 4),” Dr. Mesic declares in his essay. People who have little to no understanding are the ones that fear Muslims the most. Islamic Muslims need to take a stand and teach others what it means to be a Muslims and how they are different from terrorists. Other people must be willing to learn and take this new -found knowledge and understand that they have nothing to fear. They should be standing with their Muslim brothers and sisters to show that everyone is equal and that we are united. It is when we stand united that we can overcome terrorism.
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